Top 5 Worst Signings of the Summer Premier League Transfer Window

With the January transfer window now open, we’re taking a look back at the summer window to assess the worst buys from that transfer period for Premier League clubs.

The top five are:

1. Andy Carroll (West Ham from Liverpool) £15,500,000

Carroll has not yet featured in a match for West Ham United since his permanent move was agreed. West Ham’s other big buy of the summer, Stewart Downing, was bought largely to whip in crosses for Carroll. The Downing transfer (£6,000,000) also looks bad business right now but I would argue his value cannot be judged independently of Carroll.

2. Marouane Fellaini (Everton to Manchester United) £27,500,000

Fellaini has been inexplicably poor for Manchester United. He’s been so poor that the Red Devils are looking for more central midfield help this window. What made this an even worse piece of business was that Manchester United’s failure to meet Fellaini’s release clause when it expired days earlier meant they severely overpaid for the player.

3. Andreas Cornelius (F.C. København to Cardiff City) £8,000,000

Vincent Tan’s least favorite signing of the summer has yet to make an impact in English Football. Cornelius may get a fresh start under new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær who saw Cornelius beat his Molde FK side in Europa League play last season by a late Cornelius strike.

4. Stevan Jovetić (Fiorentina to Manchester City) £25,800,000

Jovetic has featured just five times in all competitions for Manchester City and has seemingly suffered one mystery illness after another keeping him from even making the bench for most of the Blues matches.

5. Jozy Altidore (AZ to Sunderland) £8,500,000

With just one goal twenty matches into the Premier League campaign, the American forward is looking like the worst piece of business among many bad pieces of business from the Black Cats this past summer.

Granted, Altidore hasn’t been on the receiving end of many chances created by Sunderland’s lackluster midfield, but both Sunderland supporters and footballers are now on Altidore’s back — fans have been getting frustrated by Altidore’s poor passing for Sunderland, as well as missing an open goal against Cardiff. Even one of his Sunderland teammates has publicly criticized Sunderland’s attackers, blaming the forwards as the main issue at the club.

About The Author

A lifelong lover of soccer, the beautiful game, he served from January 2010 until May 2013 as the Director of Communications and Public Relations for the North American Soccer League (NASL).
Raised on the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the old NASL, Krishnaiyer previously hosted the American Soccer Show on the Champions Soccer Radio Network, the Major League Soccer Talk podcast and the EPL Talk Podcast.
His soccer writing has been featured by several media outlets including The Guardian and The Telegraph. He is the author of the book Blue With Envy about Manchester City FC.

21 Comments

Ryan M.January 3, 2014

Hard to argue against these. I’d put put Moyes’s boy up top because he’s actually played and played poorly at such a high cost, but that’d be splitting hairs.

My problem with a list like this is that it frequently features guys who are either injured or not playing that much. I can’t really say that Carroll or Jovetic are bad buys, yet. I find it hard to believe Jovetic in particular wouldn’t turn into a great buy. I’m sure he’d rather not be ill.

In a case like Altidore’s just look at the club. New manager, an awful midfield, and another striker in Fletcher who is a proven goalscorer not scoring. The problem with Sunderland is the whole team. The handful of times I’ve seen them this year, Altidore either hasn’t played, or when he did he never got the ball. Amazing how he has no problem scoring when playing with the likes of Dempsey and Bradley.

Even a lack of playing time doesn’t matter then, as mentioned above by Phil, how could this list not include Lamela? Spurs paid ridiculous money for the guy. He looks like an uncoordinated ostrich. Or what about van Wolfswinkel?

Altidore has been poor and Steven Fletcher has found no problem scoring so I don’t get the excuse for Jozy he’s been poor and 8.5 million for a club of the size of Sunderland is a lot of money. He can’t play against the likes of Jamaica, Honduras, and Panama everyday. I want him to be successful but don’t let the fact that he’s one of our countrymen get in the way of your analysis of him as a player.

I’m not saying Altidore has been good. He hasn’t. I’m just saying it’s Sunderland’s whole team. And Fletcher has 3 goals compared to 1 for Altidore, so the idea Fletcher doesn’t have any problems scoring goals is false. In fact, look at their team stats, Fletcher leads with 3, they have a couple of guys with 2, then a handful with 1 each. Their supposedly creative midfielder Ki has 0 assists, Seb Larsson has 0 goals and 1 assist. They are awful, and it ain’t Altidore’s fault.

“He can’t play against the likes of Jamaica, Honduras, and Panama everyday.”

Funny seeing as he’s had no problem scoring against: Bosnia, Germany, Spain, among others. What Sunderland lacks is consistent play in the midfield and to stop shooting themselves in foot with red cards, own goals, and poor passing.

Can’t argue with this list. It reminds me of a list of the “Top 5 stupid things I bought on eBay” where you have one thing that showed up damaged, one thing that wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, one thing that I didn’t remotely need, etc.

Fellaini was the worst buy point blank. He’s played and has been woeful. The guy can’t make a pass for his life and he calls himself a holding midfielder and then he can’t even break up the play. You’d expect him to atleast be able to break up the play for a Holding mid and he can’t even do that. He needs to step up his game in the second half of the season.

I’d put Soldado, Lamela, Wolfswinkle, and Bony all over Altidore on this list. There were quite a few games that Altidore started where he gave other centerbacks fits. He’s just low on confidence and service at the moment.

Speaking of Sunderland, it’s funny how Bardsley is blaming the strike force of their play when players on the defense and midfield score a bunch of own goals and receive red cards early in games to put more pressure on the teams attackers. In fact, Poyet was also very upset at the midfield for trying to play “hero” ball and shooting from 25 yards out rather than play a simple ball into the box.

The situation at Sunderland has not been optimal but I think Jozy deserves a share of the blame here as well. Also remember his bust of a season at Hull. He has proven is a good striker in his time in the Netherlands and with the National Team, maybe the Premiership isn’t the best fit for him. I know at first look his skill set looks a match for the Prem but 2 goals in 43 games just isn’t cutting it, no matter how many excuses we make.

Lamela was bought at an exorbitant price, I believe a Spurs club record (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), and can’t even find a regular place in the team. It doesn’t look like there is light at the end of the tunnel at WHL for him but this might not end up being that bad becasue of his resale value. He is only 21, had two solid seasons at Roma, and I could easily see a move back to Italy or to Spain where Spurs were able to recoup maybe 2/3 of the buying price.

Probably doesn’t belong on this list but I think Arouna Kone has been a disapointment at Everton. Without knowing the fee paid for him its tough to say how bad of a bust but consider he scored 11 gaols in 33 league game for Wigan and was brought over because of the new manager’s familiarity with him… not great. I think he is overshadowed by the good play of the team and Lukaku in particular.